Carrying on Lord Tyler’s theme, I am always pleased when Ministers, faced with a question they haven’t been adequately briefed about and can’t answer from their own experience, say upfront that they will seek advice, or get further information and respond later. I think all of us in the Health and Social Care Bill Grand Committee (there are really only a dozen regulars who’ve contributed all then way through and we are all ‘the usual suspects’, ex or current professionals in the game,) have been pleased when Baroness Thornton, the junior minister (whip) responding, acknowledges her relative inexperience in this area (she is an expert in many other areas I know) and is willing to take matters back to her department for further discussion. It feels a lot more real. That’s one of the reasons I find Lords question time so irritating. We applaud government show-offs who can demonstrate their rapid and witty responses whereas in real life I want Ministers with sound judgement, personal integrity and sense of good purpose. None of these things is properly tested in the Chamber arena, it’s more like gladiatorial contest. Most of us don’t know nuffink about nuffink….I wish more people would admit it.
There is an answer to the grandstanding problem in parliamentary debate, ban any member of the legal profession from becoming an MP. Radical, maybe. Practical, undoubtedly. Just imagine, no S.Byers or T.Blair.
PS, you really should order your cyberwonks to add a spellchecker to your site.
Oh dear, Malty, sorry for the typos….I share your irritation at badly presented work of any kind. Not sure I agree with you about lawyers though. while I could name a few pedantic and long-winded lawyers in our House,we would miss some really great orators and amusing speakers if we banned them. And in their defence, they do tend to understand the nuances in the legislation we are scrutinising, useful for the rest of us.
Question Time in both Houses is the theatre of democracy and demonstrates accountability – it needs some artistic license to appreciate this.
Not everything has to be serious in politics and we certainly get to see the drama queens in action during such sessions. Irrelevant, perhaps, but the media love it.
Its also a time of networking because most people are on the premises.
baronessmurphy, I do agree that lawyers are very good entertainers, even whilst helping set free criminals who should be incarcerated, however, because of their mainly isolated lives, are they fit to represent the views of the normal person in the street, many of them seem remote, unworldly, some of them, well, I will not litter your excellent blog with the detritus of C.Blair.